Werewolf By Night exceeded everyone’s expectations with its fresh and unique direction and visuals. This special presentation has received a critics’ score of 91% and an audience score of 95% on Rotten Tomatoes. This makes it the 5th highest-rated MCU Disney+ Original yet, as well as the 13th highest-rated MCU project to date. After it premiered on Disney+ yesterday, the series has received great praise for its spooky and striking nature. Although it was inspired by retro-horror movies, the special takes place in the mid-2020s in the MCU. Surprisingly, Marvel Studios didn’t intend for it to release monochromatically from the start.
Michael Giacchino’s Vision
Kevin Feige Was Initially Skeptical
In an interview with Variety, Werewolf By Night director and composer Michael Giacchino revealed that Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige was initially skeptical regarding the direction.
“In my mind, from the very beginning, it needed to be in black-and-white,” he says. There was skepticism from the upper echelons of Marvel, so it was filmed in color but “we had a special monitor that allowed me to see what it was going to look like” just in case his vision was approved.
Werewolf By Night Needed To Be In Black And White
In another interview, this time with Fandom, Giacchino elaborated on his decision to make Werewolf By Night black-and-white.
“I felt like if we were going to do something new in the Marvel Universe, let’s really do something different and bold. Not worry about where it’s going or how it’s going to connect to something else. Let’s take the Rod Serling approach, and tell a single isolated story, a night in the life of Jack (Gael Garcia Bernal) and Elsa (Laura Donnelly). That’s really what I wanted to do.”
He always intended for the special to be in black-and-white, as an homage to horror classics.
“That was something I wanted to do from the beginning, but it was never a foregone conclusion that we were going to be able to do that. So as we were shooting, I was preparing for it to be that, knowing someone might say ‘I don’t know…’ But to their credit, they allowed me to just keep going in that direction.”
He went as far as to film the special in 35 mm film, which was commonly used in various classics.
“After we watched the first version of it in black and white, Kevin Feige turned to me and said, ‘I guess this needs to be in black and white, right?’ And I was like, ‘Yes, yes, it does!’ And we just went full force; we even filmed out the 35-millimeter. We did everything we could to make it as legit as possible and I think it shows. When you look at it, you’re like, wait, what, where is this from?”
Where Can You Watch Werewolf By Night?
Marvel Studios’ Special Presentation: Werewolf By Night is now streaming on Disney+.
Marvel 2022 Release Schedule
- Werewolf By Night: 7 October 2022
- She-Hulk: Attorney At Law S1E9: 13 October 2022
- Black Panther: Wakanda Forever: 11 November 2022
- The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special: December 2022
